For those individuals who have a difficult time bending down to retrieve items on the floor, it is desirable to have a device that can be extended from the user's hand to reach those items. Additionally, some people suffer from physical conditions that limit their range of motion. In these instances, a device that is capable of reaching and retrieving items beyond the grasp of the user is also desirable. Accordingly, retrieving devices are known in the art. For example, it is known to have canes or walking sticks with various grasping devices on their distal ends. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,176,160; 2,597,400; 3,093,402; 3,467,116; and 1,905,076 teach devices of this type. However, because the length of combination cane and retrieving devices is not adjustable, the user is limited to retrieving objects located within a defined radius.
In order to solve this problem, telescopic retriever tools have been developed. These telescopic retriever tools allow the user to retrieve objects located at various distances from the user. Telescopic retriever tools are especially useful to those users who have a limited range of motion or those who have trouble bending over to pick up objects off the floor. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,987,807; 5,381,319; 5,647,623; and 3,384,408 teach telescoping retrieving devices. Although telescoping retrieving devices allow the user to retrieve items located at variable distances from the user, because of the decrease in diameter towards the distal end of the device, retriever tools of this type tend to be weaker than non-telescoping retriever tools of the same length.